ABSTRACT
This chapter presents and explains the key clinical skills of establishing an effective therapeutic alliance based on the principles of affect regulation, attunement, resonance, and countertransference work that focus on somatic aspects of the therapy process. The universal factor of effective psychotherapy is a safe therapeutic relationship. This is even more important for the treatment of trauma. What is the role of the therapeutic relationship in somatic work during the perinatal period, given the biopsychosocial insights about the dynamics of the maternal transition? Attunement and resonance are different in the trauma treatment of the perinatal client. The perinatal therapist must develop the clinical skills of tracking their own and the client's nervous system, understanding the landscape of the somatic themes of the perinatal transition, and identifying personal biases and countertransference reactions to these themes. The expecting or new mother's nervous system requires a particular sensitivity on the part of the therapist and a willingness to engage in resonance and coregulation by tracking the nervous systems of the therapeutic dyad, tolerating the intense forms of dysregulation that characterize the perinatal period, and exploring perinatal themes appearing in the countertransference. Considerations of telehealth settings are reviewed. The chapter concludes with clinician self-reflection questions.
